678 - The On-Set Producer
Scriptnotes Podcast
John August
4.8 • 2.7K Ratings
🗓️ 4 March 2025
⏱️ 59 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
John and Craig welcome producer Dan Etheridge (iZombie, High Potential, Party Down) to look at how non-writing producers develop projects, coordinate across departments, and maintain the tone of the show as directors come and go.
We offer practical tips for making the most of video village, regardless of your role, and solutions for the scourge of directors chairs.
Highland Pro, John’s next generation screenwriting app is now available now for Mac, iPad and iPhone! We discuss what’s new and what’s coming next.
We also answer listener questions pitching multiple projects, writing on tablets and how to launch an app.
In our bonus segment for premium members, John, Craig and Dan look back on their experience officiating weddings, and offer advice for those about to marry people. Dan even officiated John’s wedding!
Links:
- Highland Pro | Download on the App Store
- Dan Etheridge on IMDb
- Buck Rodgers’ robot sidekick
- [The Tom Thumb locomotive](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Thumb_(locomotive)
- Statpage and DuckDuckGo
- I Miss the Music from Curtains
- Curule
- Evercast
- Scripto
- Night Moves, Prime Cut, and Scarecrow
- Lorelei and the Laser Eyes on Steam
- Diplomacy
- Beneath the Moon and Long Dead Stars by Daniel Wallace
- Get a Scriptnotes T-shirt!
- Check out the Inneresting Newsletter
- Gift a Scriptnotes Subscription or treat yourself to a premium subscription!
- Craig Mazin on Threads and Instagram
- John August on BlueSky, Threads, and Instagram
- Outro by Richard Barrett (send us yours!)
- Scriptnotes is produced by Drew Marquardt and edited by Matthew Chilelli.
Email us at [email protected]
You can download the episode here.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hey, this is John. A standard warning for people who are in the car with their kids. There's some |
| 0:05.1 | swearing in this episode. Hello and welcome. My name is John August. Bitty, Biddy, Biddy, my |
| 0:12.0 | name is Craig Mason. And this episode of 678 of Script Notes, a podcast about screenwriting and things |
| 0:16.8 | that are interesting to screenwriters. Today on the show, how does this series maintain its look and feel |
| 0:21.7 | when directors change each week? |
| 0:23.5 | We'll talk about one solution, |
| 0:24.6 | which is the on-set producer, |
| 0:26.1 | responsible for upholding a showowner's vision on set. |
| 0:28.9 | We'll also talk about TV development |
| 0:30.4 | and answer listener questions on pitching, |
| 0:32.8 | shipping an app, and writing by hand. |
| 0:34.7 | Plus, the scourge of directors' chairs. |
| 0:36.8 | What can be done about these implements of torture? |
| 0:39.2 | And in our bonus segment for premium members, |
| 0:41.6 | let's talk about officiating weddings because me and Craig and our guest have all been |
| 0:46.5 | officiants officially at weddings. |
| 0:48.7 | We've married people. |
| 0:50.0 | So we'll talk about the process of marrying people. |
| 0:51.7 | We've married people. |
| 0:52.9 | We have, yeah. |
| 0:53.6 | Both as a transitive and it's an intransitive verb kind of? |
| 0:57.4 | No, they're both transitive, but different. |
... |
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